Summary of Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I had come with backup, a low-ranking cop formerly assigned to the Anti–Organized Crime Task Force in Saitama Prefecture. Chiaki Sekiguchi. He was a little taller than I, almost as dark, thickset with deep-set eyes and a 1950s Elvis haircut. He was mistaken for a yakuza a lot.
#2 I was ready to leave my job, but not like this. I had only enough information to have gotten me into this unpleasant face-off with Goto. I didn’t have all the facts yet, but I couldn’t let them know that.
#3 The enforcer tried to scare me into leaving the newspaper, but instead I decided to stay and find out what Goto was afraid of. I had to wait a year or two, but I was able to return to doing what I loved.

Sujets

• Publishing
• Journalist
• Editors

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669386407
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I had come with backup, a low-ranking cop formerly assigned to the Anti–Organized Crime Task Force in Saitama Prefecture. Chiaki Sekiguchi. He was a little taller than I, almost as dark, thickset with deep-set eyes and a 1950s Elvis haircut. He was mistaken for a yakuza a lot.

#2

I was ready to leave my job, but not like this. I had only enough information to have gotten me into this unpleasant face-off with Goto. I didn’t have all the facts yet, but I couldn’t let them know that.

#3

The enforcer tried to scare me into leaving the newspaper, but instead I decided to stay and find out what Goto was afraid of. I had to wait a year or two, but I was able to return to doing what I loved.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In Japan, people don’t build a career at the major newspapers by working their way up through local, small-town newspapers. The papers hire the bulk of their reporters straight out of university, but first the cubs have to pass a standardized entrance exam.

#2

The Yomiuri Shinbun, the largest circulation newspaper in Japan, is conservative and heavy on kanji. The Asahi Shinbun used to be a close second, but it has fallen behind. The Sankei Shinbun is the voice of the extreme right.

#3

I had to pretend I had just returned from a funeral to get into the Yomiuri Shinbun’s journalism seminar. I bought a black suit, which I thought would help me get sympathy points. Instead, they called me an idiot.

#4

The Yomiuri newspaper had a seminar for potential employees, and I went to take the exam. The exam was divided into four parts: the Japanese language, foreign languages, a written essay, and your chance to sell yourself as a potential employee.

#5

I was taking the test when a Yomiuri man came up to me and asked why I was taking it. I told him that I thought it would help me get a job on the English-language Daily Yomiuri. He told me not to waste my time with the Daily Yomiuri, but to try for the real thing.

#6

I was called in for an interview, and after the first two, I heard nothing for weeks. I was nervous. I had begun the challenge as a joke, but now it was becoming a possibility.

#7

I visited a fortune-telling machine at the entrance of an arcade. I chose the category Jobs, my choice of fortune teller, Madame Tantra, and plugged in my personal information. The screen lit up and swirled around in a pink and green vortex. I picked the cards.

#8

The job you are best suited for is as a copywriter or editor or something involving writing. For this kind of work, literary skills are necessary, as well as a certain amount of lowbrow nosiness. If you always keep your antenna out probing for information and nurture your morbid curiosity in a good way, FATE will be on your side.

#9

I always liked to pay back my debts, so I added some coins to the Buddha in the gardens of the Nezu Museum. I owed that Buddha some cash.

#10

I was to start working at the Yomiuri newspaper in six months, and I was nervous about the insecurities that came with it. I knew I could handle the reading and writing parts of the job, but how would I handle interviewing people in Japanese.

#11

The Japanese press club, where reporters from all the major newspapers and magazines gather to exchange news, was a disgusting place. The walls were covered with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, newspapers, and magazines, and there were six televisions and three video decks stacked high.

#12

There are eight rules of being a good reporter, according to Inoue. The first is never burn your sources. The life of news is short, and if you miss the chance, the story is dead or the scoop is gone.

#13

Inoue’s advice was to write everything in a reverse pyramid. Editors cut from the bottom up, and the important stuff goes on top. If you want your story to make it to the final edition, make it easy to cut.

#14

The street vendors I interviewed said that the yakuza took a percentage of their sales. I saw two Japanese men with white pants, loud print shirts, and tightly permed hair walking toward an Israeli vendor. They were clearly thugs.

#15

I was sent to cover the yakuza preying on foreign street vendors, and I wrote an article about it. The Yomiuri took care of my visa, and I traveled to Hong Kong to study Chinese martial art wing chun.

#16

I had earned the Japanese dream: full employee status in a huge corporation. I didn’t want some contract hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles. I wanted the works: the lifetime employment, the company health plan, the prestigious business card, and a better visa.

#17

After the ceremony, I met with Matsuzaka, the Sophia graduate who had lobbied for my hiring. He took me out for drinks, and explained to me how I would have to amputate my past life and lose everything I thought I knew.

#18

The Japanese press is often characterized as a bunch of sycophantic lap-dog office workers, but this isn’t exactly the case.

#19

I had been assigned to the New Jersey of Japan, Saitama, a half-rural, half-suburban prefecture just outside Tokyo. Urawa is a bedroom city from which tired workers commute to the capital.

#20

The first year of life as a reporter in Japan is an elaborate hazing, punctuated by a little on-the-job training. If you survive that, things get a little better. If you’re lucky, you get your own fresh slaves to boss around and begin to discover the fundamentals of journalism.

#21

I was assigned to the Urawa office, which was led by Hara, the sumo-shaped station chief with the jolly laugh. His Italian suit and round face made him look Chinese from a Japanese perspective.

#22

The author’s first boss, Hara, and his colleague, Ono, told war stories that night. The author passed out listening to Ono karaoke. He had finally made it in the world.

#23

I showed up at the Urawa office of the Yomiuri Shinbun on April 15, 1993, and was greeted by the rest of the new reporters. We were given a copy of the police reporter manual, version 1. 1, titled A Day in the Life of a Police Reporter.

#24

The SPP training department gave us a very in-depth explanation of our duties as reporters.